My Top 10 Favorite Fairy Tale Retellings - and Why You Need to Read Them
I reach for a fairy tale (or retelling of one) nine times out of ten when I pick up a book. Though these days it’s mostly audiobooks so I guess it would be my ears reaching for the book. With little weird ear hands. I’m sorry, that’s just where my head went. So now you have that image too. These are some of the retellings that have stuck with over time - classic retellings if you will. I hope you’ll find your next favorite fairy tale on this list.
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip
Winter Rose is a retelling of Tam Lin and one that I’ve read so many times I have most of it memorized. It’s my original, go-to, must-read, always recommend title. Not even of fairy tales, this is one I recommend no matter what genre you read. McKillip is a master of the written word. She’s the writer I want to be when I grow up (if that ever happens). All of her work is incredible, but I found this book first and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Sorrow and trouble and bitterness will hound you and yours and the children of yours…
Some said the dying words of Nial Lynn, murdered by his own son, were a wicked curse. To others, it was a winter’s tale spun by firelight on cold, dark nights. But when Corbet Lynn came to rebuild his family estate, memories of his grandfather’s curse were rekindled by young and old--and rumors filled the heavy air of summer. In the woods that border Lynn Hall, free-spirited Rois Melior roams wild and barefooted. And as autumn gold fades, she is consumed with Corbet Lynn, obsessed with his secret past
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
This is another retelling of Tam Lin but in a more modern setting. I love this one. I just love everything about it. There is this surreal quality to parts of it, where you can’t tell where reality and fantasy meet, the magic seeping into Janet’s life a little at a time. You’ve got to pick it up. I know you’ll fall in love too.
In the ancient Scottish ballad "Tam Lin," headstrong Janet defies Tam Lin to walk in her own land of Carterhaugh . . . and then must battle the Queen of Faery for possession of her lover’s body and soul. In this version of "Tam Lin," masterfully crafted by Pamela Dean, Janet is a college student, "Carterhaugh" is Carter Hall at the university where her father teaches, and Tam Lin is a boy named Thomas Lane. Set against the backdrop of the early 1970s, imbued with wit, poetry, romance, and magic, Tam Lin has become a cult classic—and once you begin reading, you’ll know why. This reissue features an updated introduction by the book’s original editor, the acclaimed Terri Windling.
the bear and the nightingale by Katherine Arden
I can’t remember the last time I fell so hard and so fast for a book series. Instant love. From the first line to the last. I can’t recommend the Winternight Trilogy highly enough. I don’t even know where to start with this one, it’s all so good. It’s addicitive. I originally checked out the series from my local library but loved it so much I had to have my own copies. You’re going to want copies too.
Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil.
Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.
But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed - to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales.
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
You’ve never read a fairy tale as beautifully written as these. Angela Carter is a master of the written word. She really should be required reading for anyone, not just for fantasy and fairy tale fans. Her stories have this beautiful surreal quality, myths and legends reworked into these intricate pieces of literary jewelry.
For the 75th anniversary of her birth, a Deluxe Edition of the master of the literary supernatural’s most celebrated book—featuring a new introduction by Kelly Link
Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Audrey Niffenegger, J. K. Rowling, Kelly Link, and other contemporary masters of supernatural fiction. In her masterpiece, The Bloody Chamber—which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves—she spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
East by Edith Pattou
There are several versions of East of the Sun, West of the Moon out there and I’ve read most of them. It’s been a favorite story of mine since childhood. Who doesn’t want to be whisked away from it all by a giant polar bear and then have adventures? Edith Pattou bring life and dimension to a classic tale. She weaves a beautiful fairy tale.
Rose has always longed for adventure, so when an enormous white bear appears one evening and makes her a mysterious offer, she accepts. In exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family, she must live with the white bear in a distant castle. But Rose soon realizes that all isn’t as it seems. As she tries to settle into her new life, she makes a devastating mistake. Now she must choose: return to her safe and loving family or go on a dangerous quest to fix what she has broken—and perhaps lose her heart along the way. A sweeping romantic epic as timeless as any fairy tale and thrilling as only the best fantasy novels can be.
For the wolf by Hannah Whitten
This was a recent find for me and I’m so glad I came across it. Little Red Riding Hood has never been one of my favorite stories, no matter who was telling it. But Whitten changed my mind. This is also a series and if you haven’t picked it up yet, you need to!
As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose—to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he'll return the world's captured gods.
Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can't control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can't hurt those she loves. Again.
But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn't learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood—and her world—whole.
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
I haven’t read too many retellings of A Thousand and One Nights. Usually, it’s a retelling of one of the stories within the collection as a whole. But the idea of staying up all night telling a murderous man a story to save your life has always intrigued me. Not that I ever want to find myself in that position. If you’re intrigued too, or have a soft spot for murderous but redeemable men, this is for you.
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
This is what all vampire stories should be. And it’s always going to be my favorite retelling of Beauty and the Beast. McKinley writes a story that is grounded and fantastical at the same time, creating a world that is like and so like our own. I’ve often wished there were more stories set in this universe. It’s got the best enemies-to-lovers situation and the female lead isn’t young and nieve so it makes the ancient vampire lover a whole lot less creepy.
“Sunshine” is what everyone calls her. She works long hours in her family’s coffeehouse, making her famous “Cinnamon Rolls as Big as Your Head,” Bitter Chocolate Death, Caramel Cataclysm, and other sugar-shock specials that keep the customers coming. She’s happy in her bakery—which her stepfather built specially for her—but sometimes she feels that she should have life outside the coffeehouse. One evening she drives out to the lake to get away from her family, to be alone. There hasn’t been any trouble at the lake for years.
But there is trouble that night for Sunshine. She is abducted by a gang of vampires who shackle her to the wall of an abandoned mansion, within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight. Sunshine knows that he is a vampire and that she is to be his dinner. Yet when dawn breaks he has not attempted to harm her.
And now he needs her help to survive the day...
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
I wish I’d picked this one up sooner. Spinning Silver was recommended to me and sat in my to-be-read stack for way too long. It’s beautiful, I loved the story she told and I loved the writing. If this is on your list right now, drop everything else and read it!
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I loved this book so much that as soon as I finished listening to it, I started it again. I haven’t read a lot of Mexican folklore but this title made me want to expand my fairy tale and myth obsessions. The writing is beautiful, the characters are compelling, the story pulls you in and never lets go. This is a must-read title and a must-read author for me now.
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
If you’d like to have an easy (and pretty) checklist you can signup for my newsletter and get a download! It has all the titles plus two extra! And before you go leave me a comment and let me know what retelling you love. I'm always looking for my next favorite read.